Smaller turkey breed developed

FarmGate Hatcheries is introducing a new breed of turkey “developed to help producers meet the growing demand for smaller Christmas turkeys”.

The Super Mini Special produces 4kg hens developed from pure bronze-feathered male and female pedigree lines used in producing the company’s Tiny and Super Mini poult.

Paul Kelly, managing director of FarmGate Hatcheries, Danbury, Essex, said: “The 4kg weights are so hard to get from other small breeds grown from June hatches.

“We’ve tried and tested this new breed over the past four years and it’s perfect for guaranteeing the 4kg oven-ready weight band, with the stags giving great 6kg to 8kg oven-ready turkeys.”

Farmgate Hatcheries, part of Kelly Turkeys, announced that limited supplies of poults of the new breed will be available in both bronze and white, both as sexed hens and as hatched, from mid May onwards.

Kelly added: “Our small breeds of bronze turkeys are the genuine article, bred from a bronze mother and a bronze father. [They are] expensive to produce, but bullet-proof when it comes to a probing press and food journalists.

“We’re also very pleased with the meat quality of our small breeds. In our own kitchen we’ve found the Super Mini Special to have a particularly high meat yield, with delicious eating qualities and very fine textured meat.”